Terrestrial Hospice have been in existence since 2018 and have three full-length albums (including this one) Indian Summer Brought Mushroom Clouds (2020) and Caviary to the General (2023). Neither of which I have heard, so I’m going in blind here.

Omnicide: Chapter I starts off subtly enough. It’s a bit gentle, lulling you into a false sense of security. Then “Phosphasc Salvation” hits like a ton of bricks with a nice acoustic guitar intro that goes on for a solid two-minutes before a very Bathory “Destroyer of Worlds”-ish track begins to beat you and that’s before the blasts kick in, it strides along pretty confidently. There’s some epic shit going on around the six-minute mark, when this totally unrelated riff comes out of nowhere and elevates the song to this two-minute level for the solo.

Omnicide: Chapter I pours on the atmosphere like a black rain. “The Couloir of Despair” and “Call of the Void” bring to mind more of a Bathory meets Dimmu Borgir Black Metal attack. Whereas “Serpents in the Grass” and “Menace” hover on the cusp of Behemoth and Gorgoroth. I can picture that fancy chef guy sprinkling the band influences all over this album and Terrestrial Hospice make their sound not overly derivative of their peers. Which is a good thing because this album could have been horrible and not make me want to listen to it ever again.

“Depraver (Black Invocation)” has a lot of that atmosphere that I was talking about. It’s hard-hitting, and that’s really all you can want from a hellish blasphemy. The production could have benefited from a bit more emphasis on the drums in that they are sort of buried in the mix and when we’re talking about Inferno on drums, they need to be loud as fuck.

“Drowning Spirit” and “The Gospel of Obedience” finish the album with two elite flourishes. Both go heavy on the ambiance, and ratchet the brutality up for the last hurrah. All in all, I’d say that Terrestrial Hospice has done a super solid job with Omnicide Chapter 1, as it doesn’t reinvent anything; it’s good on its own merit.

So if you enjoy Gorgoroth, Dimmu Borgir and even some Thunderbolt, then you should trample orphans to make sure you get this album.

Weather aside, it’s ‘western’ black metal act, Sunscorched, that I’m here to talk about… I’m not Max Velocity, hahaha!

This debut album is called Blood of the Badlands, and let me tell you one thing straight away: they are NOT a clone of Blackbraid! These guys are in Arizona and Blackbraid are from New York, so there’s a difference right there. But their approach couldn’t be more different.

The first track is an instrumental called “Whiskey and Oak” it meanders along like a peaceful creek running through the desert, it reminds me of “Blackout Bar” by :Skull&Dawn: mostly for the swagger it has; like that of a gunslinger who has just won a duel in the streets of some shitty western no name town, leaving his opponent lying in a pool of his own blood.

“Stranger’s Land” should be enough to dispel any notion of Blackbraid worship. Where Blackbraid plays sort of a Swedish style of Black Metal (think Marduk and Dark Funeral), Sunscorched is more Eastern European than anything else in that they almost sound Finnish, on the Behexen and Horna path, but there’s also something else that I can’t put my finger on. Maybe when you listen to it yourself you’ll see what I mean.

Really quick, I want to talk about the artwork. I’m quoting from the release: “Visually, the album is anchored by Frederic Remington’s 1901 painting The Old Stage-Coach of the Plains, reinforcing Sunscorched’s focus on the mythologized American frontier, a world where movement, violence and isolation define existence.” That picture is cool as FUCK! It perfectly describes the music played on Blood of the Badlands.

“Slaughter at Camp Grant” balances tempos and emotional gravitas with an edge of Enslaved-style urgency as Sunscorched paint devastating tapestries across the Southwestern skies. It’s a violent track that is representative of the story being told. Next up is “Vultures that Circle my Grave” and this is one of my favorite songs; it’s a punishingly beautiful ode to loss, existence, and the human experience.

“The Gallows Tree” and “Thousand Year Drought” are sloooow, doomy… borderline DSBM on the scale of Happy Days. “Blood of the Badlands” literally starts off as a bloody stallion racing across the desert and ends up as a soaring eagle with wings of fire. The title track is a blistering whirlwind, an instrumental powerhouse, and it roars like thunder over a mountain.

I fucking love Blood of the Badlands. This album isn’t Blackbraid, and it doesn’t need to be, since there’s already a Blackbraid and they’re doing just fine, thank you very much.

I mentioned a few bands here, trying to help with the tags, but it’s your journey to take in the end. I recommend it, so go get it.

Holókauston makes me think of Incantation first and foremost. Onward to Golgotha and Mortal Throne of Nazarene more than any of their other albums. Holókauston has that sort of cavernous feel to it; Sedimentum comes to mind also, as well as Writhing. Its murky atmosphere resembles a Louisiana backwater dripping with pitch-black malice. But there’s also a Black Metal undercurrent, which is why vocalist Naas Alcameth describes Holókauston as a “heretical black opera forged in adverse esoteric and eschatological tradition” and “a madman’s alchemical experiment”.

“Hellmouth” is the opener, and it’s bursting out harder than Cronos, with a runtime of 10:33. This shit rips open wide swaths of the earth with how heavy this is. An echoing bell tolls, and right away there’s that murky atmosphere, pounding, body-shaking heaviness beyond heaviness. It gets ethereal at the 6:06 minute mark, where it takes on this whole other level of extremity… an epic fucking opener if there ever was one.

“Obscurator” is next, and there are blasts right away, no time to recover from the “Hellmouth” you just got shoved through. You’re in the fucking belly of the beast, baby. This is also the shortest track on Holókauston, coming in at a respectable 8:25. Near the middle of the song, it gets almost somber, but not by much. There are still violent whirlwinds in this oppressive storm just waiting to see the light of day.

“Howling” is the Christ-obliterating 11:09-minute third track, and it’s a fucking whopper! Slow, dripping menace like a bloody nose. It drags itself across a moldy earth before it goes completely off the rails with subtle ambience for about 2 minutes before returning to the soul-crushing heaviness. Screams echo from behind an awesome wall of sound, and it elevates this song to unbelievably huge heights.

Last up is “Iniquity”, and it’s a killer, raging track. Moving like a pissed-off bison towards an idiot tourist, it literally runs you over. You’re being gored to death by the most vicious 2000-lb wild animal whose sole intent is to get your ass out of its fucking territory. It’s a brutal, unrelenting way to say goodbye, hasta la vista motherfucker!

This re-release probably sounds better than the original, that’s usually the goal in these situations, and so if you liked it back then, chances are you will again. For those who like Incantation and knuckle dragging, Neolithic heaviness. Go on, then!

Four long years later, Ad Finem Omnia have returned from their Chilean tomb to unleash a new album upon this wretched world. Senectus Viae is the sophomore album I’ve been waiting for.

After I review something really good, I start looking forward to the next album. Some think I’m weird for that. “dude, the album just came out.” Yeah, I know. I’m just getting ready for the next big thing.

Is it worth the wait? Fuck yeah, it is! Here’s the rundown.

Beginning with an “Intro…” that segues into “The Hermit and the Wind” and we’re off to the races. Reminiscent of “In Defiance”, it builds towards the ultimate discharge, blasting interspersed with alternating Thrash beats. It gets atmospheric around the four-minute mark and continues that way for a good minute before the guitars rise up and take off with furious blasting as well.

Eight songs in forty minutes, and next up is “Inner Decay”, a no-frills atomic bomb that sets in to punish you for no reason other than it can. Ad Finem Omnia are veterans at this point, taking ideas from No Peace-No Dawn and expanding on them like memories on a theme.

“Anguish and Revelation” has a bit of a Darkthrone vibe to it, especially mid-track when the tempo shifts to a sinister blackness reminiscent of Ravishing Grimness and Sardonic Wrath.

Senectus Viae isn’t set on reinventing the Black Metal wheel and it doesn’t need to. Even on their second album, Ad Finem Omnia sounds like they’ve been doing this for years. The production is spot on, and the cover art is very representative of the violence contained within.

“The Leaf that Refused the Light” is epic and unapologetically atmospheric. The furious blasting at the beginning gives way to a solemn midsection before ripping off the bandages and sticking their fingers in the open wounds that are already bleeding from the beating you’re receiving. “Where Existence Fails” is up next, and it’s another exercise in brutality. This motherfucker is a bruiser, and I’m all here for it.

“Abolish God” spits venom and hatred towards all things holy, as it should with a title like that. The ending comes with the instrumental title track and it’s bloody awesome, twists and turns like the Nürburgring, and builds upon hypercar velocity.

I’m near the end here, and I’ve yet to make the important decision that must be made… is Senectus Viae better than No Peace-No Dawn? Or is the predecessor still the champion? I think it’s pretty well balanced. The latter had the immense power of “Vultures” and “In Defiance”, while Senectus Viae has the brilliance of “The Hermit and the Wind” and “The Leaf that Refused the Light”. That’s not to say that Ad Finem Omnia didn’t pour their souls into this masterpiece, because Senectus Viae is a fucking beast of an album. These guys have dropped a ruthless Black Metal album that needs your attention.

For the Darkthrone and Watain lovers out there, go get it!

I don’t even know where to start. I picked this one fine promo day, and unfortunately it has sat here waiting for me to listen to it. Today is the day, and I’m here to tell you, constant reader: you need to hear this. Especially if you are/were a fan of those odd Norwegian bands that came out in the 90s like Ved Buens Ende and Fleurety. This is definitely not your Impaled Nazarene or Horna or anything like that. This is a different beast altogether.

Back in 2021, Shadowy Peripherals was released and then… nothing. But over the course of those lost years, they grew from a trio to a quartet, which is where we are now. The production is stellar, the artwork is killer, and most importantly, the music is absolutely fabulous.

Starting with “Culprit Sunsets (To Chew on Darkness)” proves that this corpse has risen. There’s actually emotion in there that gives me the willies. It’s not all just blast and repeat; there are tempo changes galore, and it’s easy to get caught up in it all. There’s some Folk Metal, some Power Metal, plenty of Black Metal all pulled off with artistic flourish.

“Purple Storms (The Desert Unites and Cloaks the World)” is next and right away I can tell this is going to be a mind-scraping ride. This is nine tracks in forty-one minutes and fifty-one seconds, and I can cheerfully report that no song sounds like the other. This is what I’m talking about: balance. It’s a force of nature on Melas Khole; I want to absorb this album like a sponge. It balances the brutal with the beautiful, and takes you on an ethereal journey across time.

“Twinhearts (Fall from Grace Again)” is, at the beginning, an atmospheric stomper. Every note is given a singular purpose; the build-up to the last few brutal moments of this song is fantastic, and when it happens, it comes on deadly riffs and earthshaking blasting. “Melankolia (The Silent Acceptance)” slows things down considerably; it’s an emotionally charged bit of somber that washes over your mind and crushes your soul with its gravitas.

“The Redeemer (Smudged Flesh Withers)” ventures into Arcturus territory circa Sham Mirrors with angular riffs and a drum pattern that’s out of this world. “Revelations (Gone in Remembrance)” rages with elemental fury, demanding your full attention, and it grabs you and throws you into the wall.

“Echoes (At the End of the Rainbow)” has Arcturus on speed dial with this one; the off-kilter feeling pulls at your sense of equilibrium, while closing track “Hollow Minds Collide (In Ominous Wellbeing)” moves through space and time to open up the gateway to your mind’s eye, then gouges it out with pliers.

At the end of the day, you really need this album in your life, especially if you enjoy that period when Arcturus and Ved Buens Ende were introducing themselves to the unsuspecting world as a whole. Don’t sleep on this one!

Now here we are in 2026 with Swollen, In Flux, and it’s my first exposure to their weird brand of Blackened Death Metal. It’s a good thing I like off-the-wall shit, because these crazy Idahoans are here to wreak sonic mayhem, and I’m all here for it.

I’m just going to jump in the deep end and try to keep from drowning. “Intro…” comes and goes after 2:16, and then the best song on the album comes bursting out in pit-creating fury.

“Whence Blood No Longer Flows” breaks out these bad-ass sort of late 80s, early 90s riffs that grab the money and run. Around the four-minute mark there’s some nice solo blasting with intermittent atmospheric melodies that are fucking deadly. It’s something newer, and I think it’s pretty spiffy.

Seven songs in 35:22 minutes, and next up on the altar is “Every Flame Structured, Every Face Ablaze”, and it’s a fucking whopper, as well. It’s more of a Death Metal track than the previous, and the way Seven Chains weave their blasphemy between genres is fantastic to behold. The production is also nice and in your face. The drums are dual-wielded AK-47s, and the guitars have a vicious bite to them.

“A Declaration of Vengeance” is to the point, a beating from beginning to end. When Seven Chains lock into a groove they’re absolutely sublime, and this track is a pitch-black slab of Midwestern-style Blackened Death Metal.

There’s another “Intro…” not sure completely why, but whatever; “Gestating Ash (The Thickest Darkness)” is a late 90s Black Metal fever dream and it’s followed by the 10-minute “The Earth’s Tentacular Cross”. The perfect closer for Swollen, In Flux, it moves through tempos like a turbulent storm. I’ll be going back to check out their previous albums when I get the chance for sure.

I didn’t mention any sound-alike bands, and that’s because Seven Chains come to the table with their own set of tricks up their sleeves. Sure, I hear some Furze and a bit of Portal, and definitely Ved Buens Ende add in some True Mayhem here and there, ya go.

Swollen, In Flux is a fucking odd album, but it’s also refreshing to hear something that’s fairly original. So I’m recommending it; you know what to do.

And if there’s any band in the world of metal that can truly be broken down and so clearly defined by eras of their work, Moonspell certainly deserves a deep dive.

Portugal’s most famous and prolific metal export, Moonspell have made no bones about the fact that the band is in the twilight of their careers. While they’ve given themselves no specific expiration date, knowing that an inevitable end is in the near future makes every new release an even more fascinating listen – especially when you consider how the band has progressed and altered their sound through the years (I won’t waste time breaking down the band’s whole catalog AGAIN, just go here for the basics).

Appropriately, 2021’s Hermitage saw the band present a much more sobering, introspective sound that really did seem like a band coming to terms with their own mortality after years of some of their most bombastic and epic work (and also spawned an amazing live recording of the album from a show literally underground in a Portuguese cave – tell me that doesn’t fucking rule). It was a clear shift in the band’s approach, seeming to mark yet another new era in the band’s sound.

As it turns out, Hermitage was not necessarily setting the stage for a new era, but perhaps instead clearing it altogether to let the band cook with a whole new blank canvas. While the album’s first note on “Cross Your Heart” does indeed feature some of the bluesy, slide guitar flavors leftover from their last album, things quickly go completely vintage Moonspell. The Irreligious and Sin/Pecado vibes? OFF THE FRIGGIN CHARTS. I’m instantly thrown back to the first time I heard “Opium” and fell in love with this band. Everything from guitar tone to those dramatic synths to Fernando Ribeiro’s moody-as-fuck vocal approach just SCREAM a certain era of the band’s sound that we haven’t heard in about 25 years, and while I adore Moonspell’s more epic contemporary work, I’m tickled pink to hear this version of the band again in 2026. Chalk it up to nostalgia or whatever you’d like, it’s a fucking VIBE.

And it’s a vibe that only kicks into higher gear on “Far From God,” what with its whispered-word and synth-backed intro that makes me want to throw on some white foundation and heavy eyeliner and go dance around an abandoned warehouse with a bunch of other black-clad antisocials. It’s the unmistakably catchy sound of 90s and 2000s Goth Metal that made bands like Tiamat, The Kovenant and Theatre of Tragedy all the rage during that time. Even the production seems to be trying to cull some of that yesteryear magic. Yes, this sounds more polished, per se, than a release from earlier time periods may have, but the mix itself is spot-on for that era, with Fernando’s vocals coming in clean and clear, and given just enough effect to create an even more ominous, creepy atmosphere. The track is an absolute goth rock/metal anthem that should quickly become a fan favorite. Hell, throw “Promise of Light,” “For the Love of Mortals”, and closer “Reconquista” on your spooky Halloween Dance playlist too, each giving superb melodrama and theatrical panache.

But Far From God is far more fulfilling than just “vibes.” This is a thoroughly engaging and fulfilling record, with lush atmospheres and super solid songwriting that begs repeat listening. “Biblical,” the album’s first track to bring Fernando’s excellent harsh vocals into the mix, bears all the hallmarks of Moonspell‘s sound that you could ever really hope for, with building, earworm melodies that crescendo into a burst of energy that offer a cathartic release. And the song FUUUUUCKS in every sense of the word – speaking to a love so intense and forbidden that it becomes its own mix of ecstasy and tragedy. It oozes with tension and desire, and I’ll just say it – give this one a shot next time it’s go time with your, uh, special friend. Thank me later. Really, this entire album would make for an INTENSE night in the bedroom. Like, it’s not horny, per se, but every track just oozes with a kind of anxious desire and passion that should get you, uh, going, regardless.

Then there’s the superb “The Great Wolf in the Sky,” featuring some beautiful string work from Spanish composer Alicia Nuhro – it culls every bit of spiritual and mystical energy you’d expect from a track with such a name, and pulls in some of the more epic drama you’d expect on albums like Extinct and 1755, making for an intoxicating and immersive listen. It’s really everything you could want from a Moonspell track – drama, emotion, bombast in spades – it’s the kind of track that only a band with so much experience and confidence in their craft could pull off, and we’re all lucky enough to be around to see a band like this, after so long, continue to really shine. Ditto for “Our Freedom to Fall,” the album’s heaviest and, perhaps best track (honestly I think this is the best song Moonspell have made in a long time, which is certainly saying something given their pedigree). It’s just so perfectly crafted and put together, with infectious, doomy riffs and synths that just won’t relent, and Fernando deploying all his various vocal tricks and talents to create the album’s most dynamic offering.

I honestly didn’t know what to expect after Hermitage, and I certainly don’t think it was THIS, but you’re gonna get zero complaints from me. It’s not just a well-performed throwback, it’s a celebration of Moonspell through the years that any fan of the band should be able to fully appreciate and enjoy. Whenever Moonspell does call it quits for good, it’s gonna be a sad day – but I feel confident and content in knowing that the band will go out the same way the band always existed – on their own terms, and with their own unique voice. Far From God is easily one of my favorite albums so far this year, and I think over time could prove to be a classic, even for a band as decorated and beloved as this.

I wasn’t even sure if I was going to like it. It’s ugly, it’s abrasive, and that was after the first spin.

Many hours later…

Song titles are very useful to help convey the context of the album, so it’s no surprise that Nirriti have ridiculously long song titles. Esoctrilihum have some competition here. Take the first track “Mandukya, The Primordial Toad Croaks At The Outer Edge Of Sushupti”. First of all, I want a primordial toad; second of all, I want my voice to echo as Bhasma’s does. At first it annoyed the absolute shit out of me. Have you ever looked at your phone like it doesn’t have your best interest at heart? That’s how I looked at mine throughout the course of my listening… like what the fuck did I get myself into? But what ended up happening was I started to like it. Those drums are the battering ram of the gods, JFC!

This is what would happen if Teitanblood and Deathspell Omega were to sound like if they assimilated each other. Even Furze is probably thinking ‘goddamn, I thought my lyrics were indecipherable and obnoxious as fuck’! Not even close, buddy.

Dhrupad Anutpada (ধপদ অন$ৎপ&দ): Apophatic Ragas Of Non- Origination will kill you if given the chance. “In The Hallways Of Pure Existence, Freewill And Determinism Play Their Futile Game Of Chess” is absolutely nun-fucking insane. Blasting so savage that you’ll lose feeling in your arms and legs from swinging them around like a fucking idiot; you might end up in a coma, who the fuck knows? More importantly, who fucking cares? Nirriti don’t.

“One Foot On Samsara And The Other On Nirvana” is about as crazy as the title sounds. The amount of reverb that is used on the vocals is like an instrument in itself; that’s what almost sunk this battleship for me. They might do the same for you, I don’t know, I don’t control your life choices… You do you, buckaroo.

“Glissando Of Ever-Fleeting Moments As The Ephemeral Wheels That Carrieth The Chariot Of Perpetuity”… I had to look up what a Glissando is: ‘Glissando (from the Italian glisciare, meaning “to glide”) is a musical technique of sliding continuously or rapidly up or down a musical scale from one pitch to another’. Okay, that’s interesting. How that translates into the literal wall of sound that is spewing from my speakers, I have no idea, but there it is. These songs are endurance tests; thinking of them as weights for your ears to lift and get stronger is a pretty accurate way to describe the feeling.

“Golden Yolk of a Black Egg of a Multicolored Peacock” and “Vilambit Laya of Vitanda Mridangam Forewarns a Pan-Philosophical Defeat (Symphony No. 0 in Doom Minor)” are the last two tracks, and this is where the Indian music comes out proper. Below the howling wind vocals, there are Sitars and other crazy noises that bring the haunted sands to your living room.

To say that Dhrupad Anutpada (ধ্রুপদ অনুৎপাদ): Apophatic Ragas of Non-Origination is a challenging album might be an understatement. It’s decidedly not something you listen to if you want to chill out. I’ll admit that I was ready to hate it after that first listen. I stuck with it, and am I better off? That remains to be seen. However, I’m more inclined to recommend this than I was, which is saying a lot about my musical tastes.

Fuck it. Go get this slab of raging noise and blistering Black Metal if you like Deathspell Omega, Furze, Teitanblood and Thou Shalt Suffer… or some of the other spaced-out, cosmic devotees that make psychotic music like this. You’ll love yourself in the morning. Trust me.

The result is a pretty darn killer melodic black metal album that reminds me of fellow French solo artist Sühnopfer, but slightly less… ‘busy’, but certainly in that same super layered, shrill, but melodic wheelhouse, or a less medieval Passéisme.

I have not heard the prior three efforts, but I certainly will check them out, as Scholtès knows his way around a searing tremolo-picked melodic riff. That becomes abundantly clear towards the climactic ending of the opening track “The Sepulcher of Time”, where a gorgeously rendered arpeggio surfaces, and I’m fully vested in what the rest of the album offers.

Every track offers something to remember or go back to and relisten to. The layered riffs, subtle keys, as well as some cleverly layered vocal fx and clean singing, all deliver something brilliantly melodic and bitingly elegant. Whether it’s the blistering title track, or the familiar Immortal/ Abbath stomp that arises in the otherwise shimmering “Into the Shadow of the Falling Star”, the more moody, but still intricately layered moments of “The Last Cry of the Cosmos” (the riff at 4:40 is just perfect).

A sultry saxophone appears in “Wrath of the Endless Sea” and the almost nine-minute, varied and perfectly placed and structured closing track, “Inherits the Void”, just to keep you interested and throw a little curveball into the salvo of gorgeous, yet sharp riffs and structures.

The album sounds perfect for this style of music with a master from Spain’s Simon Da Silva, who has worked with everyone from Aversio Humanitas to Avulsed. And with all those thigns together, this is a must hear for fans of the style, and I will certainly be checking out the prior efforts.

Sinister Strain is their second full-length following the release of Charnel Heart (2019) and subsequent EP Through the Earth and Through the Sun (2019) and then… crickets. Nada until a trio of singles leads up to Sinister Strain, and here I am reviewing it. How is it? It’s ok. It’s certainly not going to reinvent the Black Metal wheel, by any stretch. But then again, sometimes things don’t have to be revolutionary to be enjoyable, which is about where Flykt is sitting here in this review.

Starting with “You Will Know Them by the Reek of Defeat”, which is like listening to brown noise, acting as an intro that is slightly off-kilter. It’s suitably ominous and sets up for “Transcendent Rebellion”, a pretty good blaster; it gets a bit Watain-ish near the end with some droning riffs. The production reminds me of Reign of Erebus and their HumanRacist album, communion wafer thin with the treble cranked and the bass somewhere in there. Just clinging on by a fingertip, more or less.

“An Uncarved Block” is reminiscent of Marduk circa Wormwood, which isn’t bad. I just can’t find the drums in there, as much as I want to; all I hear is snare… tap, tap, tap. Now on the other hand, “The Release and Descent” is a bare-knuckle beating. The drums are there, everything is right with the world in this track, and I think it’s where Flykt really stretch their wings out and the song is better for it. It’s brooding mood gets faster at the end till the blasting takes over and it’s catapulted into “Armed with Countless Daimons Seeking Abode”. It’s a Dark Funeral-ish diddy, battering ram drums competing with the fire-spitting guitars. There’s some cool shit going on around the 1:30 mark.

“Rebirth in the Name of Reprisal” has some killer riffs going on. Combative, stabbing, and rapier-sharp. “Unswerving Strife, Unyielding Will” is a pretty decent track; it plays nicely with tempos, one minute blasting hard and the next it’s slow and precise. Meanwhile, “A Furnace for the Stars” is a meandering instrumental track. It’s okay, not groundbreaking by any stretch, but it gets you ready for the 15:18 minutes of “There Comes the Light”. For the first 7:48 minutes of the track, it’s slow and then fast and then… instrumental for the remainder of the song. It’s meh. That’s all.

Seven years ago, Flykt released their debut album, and now they’re releasing their second album. It’s not a horrible album. But it’s pretty hit and miss, and at the end of the day I doubt I’ll be listening to it again after I turn this review in. For you people that like this sort of thing. You know who you are…

For those keeping track, this is their 8th full-length album, and it’s another feather in these savage Nordic horde’s cap. These guys have stayed true to the Black Metal philosophy and continue to shred the faces of non-believers. With this new album, Monolitt, Mork is set to cleanse the earth with some proper Norwegian Black Metal.

I covered Syv in these hallowed pages back then, and it turned out to be my Black Metal album of the year if I’m remembering correctly. It had this ritual nature to it, and Monolitt expands on that with crushing intensity and high-powered riffs straight out of Hell.

First track “Under vekten av verden” seethes with unholy rage. They lock into a Satyricon groove alá Rebel Extravaganza (“Filth Grinder” to be exact), and it’s off to the races. Those blast beats are delicious, benefitting from excellent production that literally shoves your face in its furious glory.

“Ødelagt” is quick as fuck at the beginning and then slowly devolves into a crawling chaos with a snappy riff that reminds me of Old Man’s Child on The Pagan Prosperity. These songs are so diverse and so deadly that merely listening isn’t enough… You feel them in your bones. “Torden” comes rising on a diabolical set of riffs, almost Emperor level, the disjointed riffing reminding me of “The Prophet” from Prometheus: the Discipline of Fire and Demise. It’s unrelenting mid-paced delivery is unholy point throughout.

Syv had some killer moments on it, and there’s even more killer moments on Monolitt than you can shake a stick at. Like the slow part in “Skrømt” is like wading through a poisonous swamp where everything wants to kill you. One second, droning riffs are swirling around your ears like there’s no tomorrow, and the next peeling off blasting sections like a bandage from a septic wound.

“Ferdamann” crawls into your ears like the creatures in Star Trek 2. It’s slow-burning, merciless, and pure evil. This is one of my favorite tracks on Monolitt, it’s got a bit of a Gorgoroth-filled center… think Ad Majorem Sathanas Gloriam or anything from Quantos Possunt ad Satanitatem Trahunt.

“Inn I en annen saere” has an almost Dissection vibe to it, circa Reinkaos, with maybe a smidgen of Gorgoroth added for flavor and Immortal to give it suitable gravitas. Oddly enough, for me anyway, I sort of hear the refrain from “Diary of a Madman”, that background harmony just makes sense in this context.

“Martyr” is my second favorite track; it’s got a Doc Martin on your throat and is ridiculous fun while being beaten to a fucking pulp. The battering ram drums, competing with the lumbering guitars, are pulverizing. “Jutul” has some of that staccato riffing and artillery shells going off around the 1:36 point where the song just fucking rips open a hole in the space-time continuum to a place where demons mosh while they tear each other apart and eat each other back to life in a spray of blood and gore.

“Utryddelse” plays with tempos like a deranged kid with a pile of severed heads. One second it’s like listening to the screaming of the damned, the next it’s Borknagar-esque rhythms that could’ve been on The Archaic Course/True North. These songs bleed with the spirit of Norwegian Black Metal, and Mork has created a magnificent Norwegian Black Metal album. I keep highlighting the Norwegian part because I don’t really hear any other influences (besides that Ozzy one). No Dark Funeral, no Marduk, no Impaled Nazarene… just pure Norwegian darkness. That’s what we’re here for, right?

Go get this motherfucker, trample over your neighbors’ children to get to the record store before they do. Monolitt is a fucking beast of a Black Metal plague unleashed upon this unsuspecting world!

…By the Word… is a bit of a slower-paced album than 2024’s…By the Shadows… (which I covered in these hallowed pages back when it was released) dot, dot, dot. Anyway, it’s a stirring album coming in with a respectable 39:55 runtime that doesn’t feel rushed or anything like that. This is more of a somber pace with some scattered blasting, but it is reigned in to almost sparingly here.

First track “When This Was Young” is on the slow burning side, it picks up some speed towards the end. This being a Trelldom album, there is weird atmospheric things going on in the background, but for some reason these sounds tend to overpower the drums so I found myself sort of squinting my ears to hear what they were doing.

“I Speak Forgotten Voices” is a faster track, incorporating some insane blasting into the mix near the end of the song, but before that is the build-up, and what a build-up it is; haunting shit is going on in the background, and I dare say I might hear a saxophone somewhere in there…

“This Moment the Life of a Memory” is furious out of the gate, but then it gets almost somber and stays that way through the remainder of the song. Not quite DSBM territory, but pretty fucking close to it. The title track has these scatter-shot drums that are slightly unsettling, and jazzy as fuck to boot… in a good way mind you. The only way to really describe it would be like two armies standing toe to toe, just hammering the shit out of each other. The saxophone squeals like a pig in heat, capturing the animalistic nature of the beast Gaahl has created, and it all coalesces in a ritual of destruction and blinding chaos.

“Folding the Mind” is my favorite on …By the Word… and it all starts with drummer Kenneth Kapstad slapping his drums around as if they owe him money. This goes on for about two minutes before things slow down and shit gets serious. It brings out that slow headbanging where the music feels like a physical force hitting in waves of bleak sorrow.

“The Word – Choose to Vanish” brings some more soaring, discordance and downright insane effects that defy any nature-based lifeforms to not get caught up in the swaying, evil wind that this ship of cold Black Metal supremacy is riding on. “In There Outside” is that song that is the perfect way to close the album. I haven’t mentioned any other bands in this review, and this is the song that is the most Gorgoroth-ish on …By the Word… landing somewhere around “Carving a Giant” and “Rebirth”. In between those diseased folds of flesh is where the answer lies.

…By the Word… is a nasty Black Metal album. It maintained a suitably Kvlt atmosphere that got palpable the more and more I listened to it. It’s a soul shredding creation and earsplitting at times. Is it better than …By the Shadows…? Not quite. But it stands on its own psychotic merit and that’s okay too. For you sickos that worship Ad Majorem Sathanas Gloriam and can’t get enough of the weirdness that challenges the concept of what Black Metal is in 2026. What are you waiting for? Go get this album.

But after three good albums, including 2022’s Erwachen, I didn’t see this coming, as Gram (grief or sorrow) is going to be one of my very favorite black metal albums of the year, and is in serious running for one of my overall albums of the year.

Gram is absolutely fucking killer. Despite its more somber overarching theme of grief, anger etc, it’s still melodic black metal at its heart. It has that triumphant, Véhémence, Passéisme, medieval style. Still, without some of the wispy, fluty, folky atmospherics (there are a few keyboards scattered around, but noticably less than Erwachen), this is just epic, searingly melodic riffs upon riffs. And the songs are a bit shorter and direct than on Erwachen – no 8 or 11-minute songs here.

It starts with “Geisterflug”, an absolutely fucking banger of a track and one of my favorite tracks of the year; the blistering, main riff is perfect, the rousing, militant marches and vocals (Baptist delivers an array of gruff bellows, traditional black metal rasps, as well as monk-ish chants) are perfect. It just rips.

But whereas Cnoc Ad Tursa slightly struggled to keep things going after starting their recent album with a scorching opener (“The Caoineag”), Atronos just keeps the excellence coming for the next 45 minutes with song after song of just downright epic, rousing, blood-pumping black metal.

I could call out each song, as most of the following 9 songs after “Geisterflug” are unskippable. But certainly the almost black ‘n’ roll gallop of “Ein Raunen im Sturm”, the varied stomp and blast of “Kummertreiben”, yet another melodic scorcher in “Knochen”, with its angelic clean vocals/keyboard climax, the haughty, bouncy “Mit Hass im Aug’ und Stahl im Blut” (the transition around the 2:34 mark is just amazing), the somber but blistering “Titanisches Erbe”, the varied, but still rousing gallops of ” Richtschwert deiner Sünde” and rollicking “In Ketten” (with some Garm -ish clean vocals), all kick all sorts of ass.

I just wish closer “Zorn” had been a more emphatic endpoint, as the sudden ( and jarring) falsetto vocals and more thrashy tones, while still pretty rip roaring, don’t quite end the album on the high note I wanted.

I sort of had the upcoming Vallendusk album already pencilled in as my favorite melodic black album of 2026, but Gram is certainly going to make that much more questionable, as it’s been getting more playtime than any other album, of any genre, in 2026 so far.

Featuring members of Finnish Black Metal royalty (True Black Dawn, and …And Oceans, to name two). Accelerated Death Impulse is a striking debut, and it’ll be interesting to see if AntiHuman Industries continues to album number two; for now, though, this album isn’t fucking around.

I used to think that Industrial Black Metal started and stopped with Aborym. Give me shit, I don’t care. I now know that there are numerous bands under the banner of that sub-genre, so yeah, I’ve been educated. AntiHuman Industries is as cold as the name sounds. I love their take on Industrial Black Metal and hopefully will hear more from them in the future.

That being said, they’re painting the walls with blood on “Loop of Cosmic Horror”, a merciless display of violence overpowered with battering drums and a guitar tone that sizzles like acid on bare skin. “Error: Human” is nihilistic as they come; the clinical level of extremity is palpable as AntiHuman Industries carve out furrows in your eardrums.

“Brain Noise” sounds kind of familiar… like the chord progression sounds like, and forgive me if I’m wrong, it sounds like “Towards the Pantheon” from In the Nightside Eclipse, but if it was played the way that Crionics covered “The Loss and Curse of Reverence”… at least that’s what I’m hearing. I don’t know about you. This is my experience, haha!

OK, so next track “Eerie Curiosity” is full-on guts-fucking Black Industrial Metal. That’s it. Put your head in a cement mixer, and you’ll get the physical feeling of this nightmarish song. The production on Accelerated Death Impulse is pretty fat; it hits hard when the moment calls for it, which is the whole goddamn album, honestly.

The title track is suitably raw, mirroring the sound that 1349 had on Liberation, the godly blasting reaches levels of unbridled ecstasy, and it’s followed by “Renounce-Resist-Revolt”, which has a mix of the True Black Dawn from the Blood for Satan album and Disciplin on Anti-Life. It shakes furiously, shrieking in reckless abandon.

“A.H.I. (Syndicate Dolls)”, is a magnificent My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult/Electric Hellfire Club Industrial, ichor-pumping dance track (yeah you read that right). “Lucid Dream” is like “Lucid Fairytale” if Napalm Death were Black Metal, it’s short and white hot fast.

Final track “Grief” is accurate to the stages one goes through. Some lovely female vocals start it off and it burns for a few seconds as it gathers intensity and then there’s the discharge and it’s full speed ahead, take no fucking prisoners.

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to Accelerated Death Impulse and if you love True Black Dawn, 1349, Crionics or E.H.C. you need to get this bastard of humanity now!

Throw in the fact that the members have been involved with Saor, arguably Scotland’s biggest black metal exports, and other bands I enjoy like Fuath and Ruadh, and I’m truly baffled that I haven’t been all over these guys.

As you have probably gathered, Cnoc an Tursa play a form of Scottish-themed, atmospheric, pagan/folk black metal that, of course, will appeal to Saor (though no pipes here, though there is a smattering of keyboards and acoustics), but also that very British/Irish/Scottish black metal sound played by the likes of Winterfylleth, Wodensthrone, and, of course, Primordial.

After the introductory number “Na fir Ghorma”, the album gets off to an absolutely rip-roaring start with “The Caoineag”, and I mean fucking rip-roaring. It’s one of my favorite album opening songs of the year (along with “Geisterflug” by Atronos) and just a downright, killer melodic black metal track that would have Vallendusk blushing. Throw in some raspy shouted vocals, nice pagan sways, an epic mid-paced bridge, and some female vocals from Karinne Tursa (she appears a few times on the album), and you have a fucking high bar for the rest of the album.

Now, the rest of the album is pretty solid, but of course, they never reach the perfect peak of “The Caoineag”. And truth be told, I had to force myself to stop simply playing that track over and over, and actually get to the rest of the album.

Tracks where Karinne Tursa appears, like the mid-paced “Baobahn” and the more urgent “Address to the Devil”, got my attention a little more, but there’s still a lot to like all over the album; the steady militant march of “Cailleach and the Guardians of the Seven Stones”, the sweeping majesty of “Am Fear Liath Mòr”, the Immortal/Abbath-ish gallop of “Alba in my Heart”. It’s all very clean, elegant, and enjoyable.

But still, my finger kept creeping towards the back button throughout.  It’s not as bad as the 90s, when you heard one song on MTV or Headbangers Ball and rushed out to buy the CD only to discover that the rest of the album sucks. This is still a good album, with a great song on it.

Hubris isn’t going to rewrite the Black Metal blueprint anytime soon, but that’s just fine. Acts of Sedition is a satisfying album, a meat and potatoes Black Metal album as it should be.

From the first track, “Call to Sedition”, they get right down to business. Most of Acts of Sedition hovers around the world of Gorgoroth/ Ov Hell territory, and since those bands are basically one and the same (by way of King Ov Hell from Gorgoroth). Anyway… they’re talented musicians, no doubt about that.

“Lightless Lantern” rips straight out of the gate with an ice-cold arsenal of riffs alá 1349, early Immortal style. Pretty fucking cool, and yes, there are some killer riffs to be heard. Melkorpse is the main vocalist (they’re all listed as vocals, but he’s the head dude), and his voice box must be fucking shredded after shows.

Savagery is unleashed with “Incantation of Death”, followed by “Boil of Humanity” with an intro slightly reminiscent of the first couple Reign of Erebus albums. I mean, there are beat downs, and then there are Buffalo, NY Black Metal beat downs and Hubris aren’t fucking around. The title track? Holy shit that’s the good stuff right there, like the riffs are on an Adderall speed ball… fucking excellent.

“Era of Hubris” has this crazy-cool center that’s incredibly enjoyable. “Pissed on Ambitions” is a full-speed-ahead instrumental that reminds me of “Violent Generation” by Brutality.

“The Great Division” and “Outer Space Satanic Torture: Hymn to Nuit in the Abyss” round out the last two, and of course, they take it out with a bang.

Hubris doesn’t appear to be conceited, as their name would imply, and Acts of Sedition is, indeed, a humble release. It wears its influences on its sleeves and there’s nothing wrong with that. Like I said, they’re not going to reinvent the Black Metal wheel, but they elevate the genre with Acts of Sedition. If you like the bands, I’ve mentioned then you’ll be over the moon for Hubris. Get this album now!

Fellow scribe Frank Rini said he would punch me if I didn’t quote him regarding this fantastic new offering from international mutilators (but mostly from Jerusalem/ Bethlehem, having relocated to the much more accepting Netherlands to avoid religious intolerance); I’m talking about Melechesh. Who did you think I was talking about? Nile?

Yes, you read that correctly: Melechesh have a triumphant EP called Sentinels of Shamash, and it is a fucking whopper. Having released their last album Enki back in 2016(!) I first heard them on their Djinn album back in 2001, and they followed that with the powerhouse albums Sphinx and the blistering hell of Emissaries. I don’t know what happened between 2016 and now. I’m not going to speculate about it… the result is Sentinels of Shamash, so I don’t care what they did for the last ten years. Maybe they played Cricket, who knows.

If you can’t already tell by the general tone of this review, I fucking love this new EP! It’s a culmination of the sounds from each individual album rolled into one brutal bastard. They come out swinging with the fiery first track, “The Seventh Verdict”, and it’s all there. Those riffs that skin you alive like a sandstorm, a Bedouin beat down if I may be so bold. The drums are AK-47 machine guns raised in defiance of tyranny, an epic 6:32-minute death roll. This mid-paced brutalizer throws you in the abattoir from the opening riff.

Melechesh in 2026 is a force to be reckoned with. The core members are back together: Melechesh Ashmedi (vocals), Lord Curse (drums), and Moloch (guitars), proving that they are the leading name in Mesopotamian Blackened Death Metal.

“In Shadows, In Light” is a complex maze of Black Metal torment (see what I did there). There’s a HUGE Behemoth breakdown at the 2:26 point that is absolutely massive, and then there’s yet another chord progression that spins your head 360 like Regan in the Exorcist. The solo at 4:10 is a banshee’s wailing call, then the song entwines you in its coils, it gets thoroughly thrashing as Melechesh heads for the conclusion of this maniacal track. The vocals are full of hatred and bile; it’s like that ten-year span didn’t even happen.

Finally, the last track, “Raptors of Anzu” blasts like Blackbraid, only there’s a venom to their delivery that Blackbraid could only imagine having in their arsenal. This song just sounds like it could be playing while a fucking Falcon rips off some poor bastard’s face. Deftly switching tempos from Black Thrash to shredding Black Metal, and the breakdown at the 4:59 mark is just chef’s fucking kiss.

Holy fucking shit, I can’t get enough of this EP. If this is what Melechesh has in mind going forward, I’m here for it! For the fans of Rotting Christ, Dimmu Borgir, and Blackbraid and anyone else, fuck it… Just go get this EP already. What are you waiting for?

I found out about Darkthrone through the classic Transilvanian Hunger; picked up from an Albuquerque bookstore, used. It wasn’t some hole-in-the-wall store either; no lit candles guided my way, nor were there Goth girls.

That was 1994, and the Black Metal gods were smiling on me. I immediately wanted everything from them, and I was able to get my fiendish little paws on Panzerfaust, Ravishing Grimness, The Underground Resistance, and anything else this savage Nordic horde spewed forth from Necrohell Studios.

This is their 22nd full-length, and I fucking love it! Here’s something I noticed over the course of its 41:07-minute runtime. This is Darkthrone’s Black Album. Hear me out before you call for my crucifixion. The last few albums have been leading to this point: Eternal Hails……, Astral Fortress, and It Beckons Us All.

The Black Album (Metallica’s seminal 1990 release that skyrocketed the band to obscene heights) showed them slowing down and getting way heavier in a “Thing that Should not Be”, “Harvester of Sorrow” sort of vein. So why am I comparing this new Darkthrone album to Metallica’s bestselling album? In a word… maturity.

There’s a level of ambience on a Darkthrone album that’s new to me. Pre-Historic Metal is a menacing, pitch fucking black Norwegian Troll striding across the icy mountains. From the count-in on “They Found One of My Graves”, a Black Thrash number that will have your head banging so hard your brain will be sloshing around in your skull. It’s that good, and Fenriz adds some interesting fills, keeping it thrashy with not a blast beat in sight.

The title track bursts along with suitable speed and ferocity. Nocturno Culto’s voice is gritty and… older. Older than time? Not that old, but it’s got the weight of years behind it, so semi-old. “Siberian Thaw” has a bit of a “Quintessence” feeling to it; there’s a cool part where it’s all slow and brooding, and then the song bursts forth like a demon baby from an infected womb.

“Deeply Rooted” is more of a ‘standard’ Darkthrone track and throws back a bit to Hate Them and Sardonic Wrath. ‘Standard’ because it seethes with barely contained hatred and bile, so you know… a Darkthrone song.

It’s funny how in the press release it says “for fans of Darkthrone”… like no shit, you don’t say? But it’s funny because you’ll have a mountain of Darkthrone impersonators, bands who stick to the formula: Esoctrilihum, Embers Of Ouroboros, and An Autumn for Crippled Children. But at the end of the day, there’s only one Darkthrone.

“The Dry Wells of Hell” and “So I Marched to the Sunken Empire” are my favorites on Pre-Historic Metal. They crawl and writhe across the sound waves, fat and smelling of suffering and Brimstone. Especially the latter, which is utterly frightening in how good it is, bringing in some reminiscent memories of Thorns, Arcturus, and later Ulver.

“Eat Eat Eat Your Pride” is a raucous, abandon sort of track, a bit punkish and angry as a swarm of wasps with rabies, also has Fenriz doing his best Mercyful Fate-era King Diamond voice. The song even has a Don’t Break the Oath vibe. But it is closer “Eon 4” that shocked the ever-stinking shit out of me. It’s a light, ambient journey, a trip through Hell, and it’s Darkthrone at their most vicious since “Snø og granskog (Utferd)” from the mighty Panzerfaust album.

Out of their recent releases, this is by far my favorite. It’s a culmination of decades of Black Metal mastery and shows why these fuckers are at the top of their game. I don’t know if the comparison to the Black Album was made clear, because this could also be mentioned in the same sentence with Satyricon’s Age of Nero or Now, Diabolical, and not be out of place at all.

With stellar production, this is a Darkthrone album for the ages. So I wholeheartedly recommend it to keep the heat at bay this summer. Horns up!!

This is a quirky album. It is its own best friend. Some parts are super fucking depressing, parts where you’ll boogie till you puke, and then parts where you just feel alive. So, how is it a Black Metal album? I’ll speculate on that in a second.

It’s Punky as fuck on the opening track “Space Heater”, like Reverend Horton Heat on meth. Hyper as an un-medicated child with ADHD, it’s bold and brash and doesn’t give a shit what your mom thinks. “Ærlig Talt” reminds me of Björk and her vocals with the Sugarcubes; hell, even on her own, she’s an angel. The song has a sense of whimsy and positivity (they could be singing about slaughtering kittens for all I know; it’s in Norwegian).

“Stellar Suicide” is a perky Goth chick in a sundress, but when Twin Serpent goes dark, they go pitch fucking black. So the song jangles and bangles along all the while begging for your attention. It’s also the single from True Norwegian Blackgrass, oh, the wonders of insanity! “Freak Flag” is one of my favorite tracks, “come join the dark side, come to the cool side”! I fucking love it, and it’s all delivered in this delicious homage to American Bluegrass.

But this is ‘True Norwegian Blackgrass’… how is this album, with no blast beats whatsoever, barely any distortion, and absolutely zero mention of Satan; how can this be a Black Metal album? Very carefully, if you understand the core beliefs of the Black Metal movement. These are lyrics about love and loss (“Ain’t Home No More”), the epic breakup song where the guy coldly states, “you’ll die alone”. Fucking heartbreaking and savage as hell. “Hundromshelvete” is just fun as fuck, like the whole album is fantastic but it’s little bits like an electrified banjo pulling off some deadly solo licks that get the redneck in me doing something like dancing.

“Tusen Takk” is this drawly, lazy as fuck until the 1:13 when the song sits up and yells at its kids to shut the fuck up. “Radiophobia” has this apocalyptic Nick Cave vibe to it, and that’s another reason why I like this album so much. It has that Tom Waits awkward and off-kilter time signatures that laugh in the face of all convention, and that, goddammit, is what makes this a Black Metal album.

There’s songs that give me the willies. “Forventninger” is just wilding with itself. Around the 1:40 point, there’s a badass little break, blink, and you’ll miss it, but it’s killer. “Holy Ghost” has a revival spirit to it, a bit of Nick Cave once again leaks in, giving it a confidence boost. “Kipu Kivi” is a haunting track. Creepy banjo against these almost chanted vocals, Hanna Fauske has moments where she sounds like Björk, and this is one of those times.

Closer “Anti-Nation Blues” erupts in spurts (clean out your minds, ya pervs) at times being quiet and resistant to hysterics, but a second later it’s just fucking chaos and the baby is out with the bathwater.

Final verdict is that I fuck heavily with this album, I became friends with it, we smoked bowls together, and cuddly shit like that. If you think this is up your tree, it just might be. Especially if you’re a fan of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Tom Waits, and Roy fucking Clark. Get this album and line dance in your front yard just to piss off your HOA!

Original bassist/vocalist Cronos has been keeping things going, and the band itself, with Rage on guitars and Dante on drums, has remained stable for over 15 years. I love the first four Venom albums. Welcome to Hell, Black Metal, At War with Satan, and Possessed were all monumental in the merging of NWOBHM with a style that Venom started, called Black Metal. After Possessed, the band never reached the heights of those albums, releasing lackluster albums with no memorable staying power. Venom has remained a cult phenom and I was lucky to see them at MDF years ago; however, due to the band not doing tours in the USA, they have remained, still more of an underground entity. I feel that if the band had released good albums over the last several decades and had been touring, we might have seen Venom touring with the likes of Slayer, Exodus, etc, you name it. But major acts are not going to take out non-touring artists. Facts.

Knowing how Venom’s last albums have been, I was not expecting much from this 13-song, 43-minute-long album. The first single released months ago was “Lay Down Your Soul”. Going into the song with zero expectations, and I mean zero, considering the band had not put out anything good in four decades, this song knocked me on my ass. Going all the way back to their Welcome to Hell debut, this song brought back the raw NWOBHM and Black Metal that the band created. Galloping madness with an extraordinary lead riff and super catchy chorus with lyrics tying into their earlier works…’Lay Down Your Soul…To the Gods Rock and Roll’. The music is updating the original Venom sound, and the song is fast and has excellent guitar solos to boot. Cronos sounds like a man rejuvenated, and he sounds flawless on this. I even played their original four albums back to back and then played this song, and honestly, this song could have been on any one of those tunes. It is that excellent.

We can rewind to the song opener, the title track. With its atmospheric buildup, the song quickly gets into the speed with organic and well-timed double bass drums. True headbanging moments and some pinch harmonics as well. This song takes their 80’s sound and gives it a bit of a facelift. We even have some cool guitar harmonies happening on here. The NWOBHM ever-present sound, which helped define Venom, is all over this sucker.

Before I get into another song, let’s speak about the album cover. Seemingly, AI-generated, keyboard killaz out there are already panning this album and other albums using AI imagery. I have been roped into some online battles recently, and I told these punks it’s up to the band to use the art they wanna use. Now, if you wanna be a purist and not listen to the music or drag down the band, because of the art they are using, then that is your fucking loss. I only draw the line when it comes to the music. AI is being used for music, which I am not supportive of. Anyway, the AI imagery of the Devil is ok, but if you have the album through Apple Music the cover is interactive with the Devil’s head moving and opening its mouth. I was looking at this at night, and it’s pretty creepy. Love it. Off soapbox now.

“Man & Beast” is a slow cruncher of a tune, and with the guitar slide and the song title being gang shouted, it is perfect and the perfect song to put in the middle of their live set. One of the catchiest songs the band has ever recorded. This is also one of the heaviest songs Venom has ever written. I can see the band and fans headbanging in unison while the song is being played live. The song gets into a quicker gallop, over the guitar soloing, before getting back into that catchy beat. Terrific song.

“Kicked Outta Hell” is a nice, cheeky number with an excellent opening guitar moment, then traversing to an all-out thrash assault. The song slows back down, and this song has 1982 Venom written all over it. The song picks up the pace with the song title being screamed out. There are tempo shifts galore, with excellent mid-paced and fast moments sprinkled throughout the song. The repetitive nature keeps the song catchy and memorable. There are a lot of other terrific songs on the album, and the brooding “Unholy Mother” closes out the album with catchy bass lines. Memorable synths and a doomy song overall. This is a very cool song to close out the album. Live, I am unsure how it would go over. On a recording, it’s great, but it may lose the focus of the crowd.

If Venom’s prior output, after Possessed was anything close to Into Oblivion, I feel there would have been demands for them to tour and bands taking them out. This would have translated into the Venom name being spoken in the same breath as let’s say Slayer, etc., Exodus, Testament, etc.. This album sounds as if it could have been released after Possessed. With its strong ties to their 80’s legendary sound and the strong songwriting on this album, this album is the top of my list for 2026. To hear the band return to form with such a strong album, this sucker smokes other new 2026 albums, of their long-time brethren – I am looking right at you, Exodus. Venom – welcome back for Devil’s sake and thank you, thank you, for welcoming us all back to your Hell!!!!!!!!!!!

Now, since their debut, they have released a couple more albums with Shrines to the Warhead , Black Frost Fallout,  and their last album, Survival, back in 2013, but I never got around to hearing those for som reason. Then the band took a bit of a hiatus, only dropping a few singles over the last 13 years.

But here we are on a new label, with a new album. I had to go back and check out the debut, and it’s still an icky, oozing affair that hits the spot. And fans will be happy to hear that not much has changed in the Highgate camp.

The trio still delivers a blackened sludge/doom mix that taps into a blacker Crowbar or Negative Reaction, Primitive Man, Cough, Eyehategod, Wolvhammer, Beldam, etc. But one thing that jumped out to me was the new shiny, but still neurotic, fuzzed-out production, which is immediately apparent on the crawling, loping opening throes of the first track, “Terraforming Hell”, before it briefly transforms into a feral, snarling black metal gallop.

Other than the killer production, there are still the pained howls and blackened rasp of the vocals of the Porter brothers, the throbbing bass, and ample, droning, drawn-out moments of tense, paranoia-inducing atmospheres. But the emphasis is still heavily geared towards fuzzy, festering crawls that make you itch and squirm, not the warmer fuzzy stylings of their more stoner-y cousins.

The likes of “Deceiver”, the almost 10-minute spiral into dread, “The Writhing Dawn”, or the perfectly titled closer “At Paranoia’s Poison Door”, will have your teeth falling out and your skin festering as you scratch and twitch like a meth addict having the DTs.

To be honest, watching kids grow up from afar is probably more my speed anyway – and it can be a real mind-fuck of an experience! When you’re only seeing your friends’ and families’ kids every few months (let alone years!), you miss all the subtle growth and daily changes that brought them to where they are now. Instead, you just get these big ol’ jumps where they literally become entirely different people every time you see them. Oh they used to like dinosaurs? Well now they like trains. Get ready to hear everything there is to know about the Union Pacific Big Boy articulated 4-8-8-4 locomotive,  the largest and heaviest steam locomotive ever developed. But also be ready to talk about dinosaurs because no one ever gets bored of dinosaurs.

THE POINT IS, it often takes a bit for someone to develop their actual identity – time to experience and try new things, figure out what you really like and don’t actually like at all to figure out what really makes you, you. Case and point, take a look at Scotsman James McBain and his body of work with Hellripper. The project started out in life with the basic identity of, “I’m gonna play guitar really fast and write songs about the devil and evil shit.” And it was fine! McBain has always had a knack for a really good riff, and his ability to write catchy, no-frills club bangers that encouraged crowd participation and interaction has never been in question, to the point that the growth of the “Goat Kvlt” on an international stage was no joke. Tracks like “Full Moon Witchery, “Bastard of Hades,” and the fan favorite “All Hail The Goat” were all good for a quick hit of thrashing, ripping blackened speed metal for the sake of all things \M/METAL\M/. But if I’m being honest, most earlier work was a sort of “here for a good time, not for a long time” affair. A sort of one-trick-pony that was super fun in the moment, but fairly easily moved on from and forgotten about in the long term. A band I’d gladly go see live, but wouldn’t spend a TON of time becoming invested in.

That all started to change with 2023’s Warlocks Grim & Withered Hags. The killer riffs that were always Hellripper‘s trademark were still there, of course, but McBain also started to inject a lot more substance into his music, crafting an overall sound and experience that were uniquely his. First, he really started to embrace his Scottish roots by putting creatures and entities of Scottish folklore and legend front and center in his songwriting (look no further than “The Nuckelavee” and “Mester Stoor Worm” as prime examples), and even included an awesome bagpipe cameo on the album’s title track just to bring the point home (quite literally). But even more noticeably, McBain started to expand his songwriting to become far more dynamic, going beyond the surface-level impact of fast-and-furious quick-hitters and instead offering a fully-fleshed, fully realized listening experience with a lot more lasting power. It was, and still is one of my favorite albums of that year, and indeed of this decade so far, setting quite the bar for McBain to try and match, let alone top.

As usual, I’ve beat around the bush plenty – so I’ll just say it: Coronach is Hellripper‘s finest work yet. McBain hasn’t missed a beat, and instead has set a whole new benchmark for what’s possible with this project. It fucking rips. It’s so good.

True to form, this album wastes no time getting right into action – with “Hunderprest” galloping straight out of hell’s gate with a lightning storm of excellent Blackened Thrash riffs. Where before a good Hellripper riff was, in essence, just that – McBain is continuing to up his game, offering more and more stacked, harmonized riffing for a full, rich sound that keeps you coming back to pick apart more and more layers with every listen. And the insane riffs just keep piling up one after another! In days past, “Hunderprest” would probably come to an end around the 2:30 minute mark after the song’s second reprise. Here and now, we’re met with a distorted, disturbing piano decrescendo, before McBain blasts open yet another blistering, ultra-blackened riff – this time backed by a pummeling blast beat that sounds every bit as chaotic and evil as hell’s seventh layer. This all serves as a bridge into the first of this album’s awe-inspiring solo sections, where McBain puts his full chops on display – the sort of soloing built on having had a steady diet of Kirk Hammet and Dave Mustaine in your musical development. Not that it should have been in any question, but it’s a stark reminder of the level of musicianship we’re actually working with here, even if often overlooked or underappreciated.

What strikes me most about this era of Hellripper is the sense of balance McBain is able to maintain throughout the course of the album. Tracks like “Kinchyle (Goatkraft and Granite)” and “Blakk Satanik Fvkkstorm” prove that, despite some of the maturity and growth that has taken place, the unbridled fun and sadistic joy that has been the core of the Hellripper experience is still alive and well. I’d hate to ever see a version of this band where these kinds of tracks didn’t exist, and McBain seems just as happy as ever to provide them – the latter in particular really just leaning fully into the bit with an anthemic, balls-to-the-walls Black ‘n’ Roll attack that just brings a dumb smile to your face. The former is just a straight-up Thrash heater, complete with a simple, gang vocal’d chorus that will be a huge crowd pleaser, and the kind of Maiden-inspired melodies that can’t help but get under your skin and make you wanna don your battle jacket and throw horns wildly in the air. It’s an instant Hellripper classic sure to be a staple of every live gig moving forward.

On the other end of the spectrum, the midpaced, piano-intro’d “The Art of Resurrection” provides listeners with a welcome change of pace and added depth – dripping with blackened atmosphere and more infectious, anthemic sing-along moments that show McBain really has his audience first and foremost in mind in his songwriting process. Even in it’s blackened drear, there’s an uplifting, almost triumphant air to the song that seems to show McBain flexing his muscles, expressing the sort of confidence needed to rip out yet another of his brilliant solos – this one not so much reaching virtuoso status, but instead showing a level of understanding and restraint for what works with this track, another sign of McBain’s growth as a songwriter. The complexity of this one is carried over into the next, with “Baobhan Sith (Waltz of the Damned)” featuring the kind of turn-on-a-dime time pace changes and collection of riffing and solo work that will leave you dizzied, but certainly impressed. The stretch beginning around the 2:50 mark is one of Hellripper‘s finest, featuring an attack of galloping guitars that practically snapped my neck in three places when I found myself needing to headbang along with demented glee. The track rounds out with an unusually pretty (yes, I said pretty) close with mighty, gorgeous guitars backed by the tweeting of… songbirds? McBain is painting a picture of finding one’s self in the middle of a foggy Scottish wood, and I’m absolutely here for it. It once again points to McBain’s willingness to stretch out the boundaries of what’s possible from the band, finding himself within the project and who he is as a songwriter. It’s brilliant.

This far in, I won’t bog you down any more than I already have to wax poetic about the album’s final two tracks, “Mortercheyn” and title track “Coronach.” Simply put, they’re two of the better tracks McBain has put together through the history of this project – the latter being the sort of Blackened Heavy Metal opus that should grab the attention of every self-respecting Heavy Metal fan on the planet (and we get more bagpipes! Give me all the fucking bagpipes). It’s a brilliant end to a brilliant album that has brought Hellripper‘s game to a whole new depth. I’ve considered myself a fan of this band for a long time (even if from afar), but Cornonach makes me feel like that neglectful godparent who now shows up to gigs and tells everyone in sight about how he knew them as “wee lads” and always knew they were going to blow up into the juggernaut they are today. It’d be an outright lie, but fuck it – the unearned pride I feel for this band’s development is no less real and I’m holding on to it. It’s about time the world get to see what McBain and Hellripper can do, and I hope they take over the goddamn planet.

As I said in my review of Nazghor’s A World Ablaze, I’ve been digging what the reactivated Solistitium Records has been laying down, so I thought I’d check out the 6th album from this act, which was formed by Cryptic Wintermoon‘s ‘Nachtsturm’ and joined by long-time member Iskharian on vocals, and recent addition, Tyrann on bass.

What we have is a very Scandinavian-sounding black metal album, with less German…’quirk’. It’s a frosty, brittle, tremolo-picked assault of wintery salvos, with some Dark Funeral, Istapp, and early Ulver (especially some of the bass lines)/Abigor/ Emperor vibes. It’s raw, but clean and has some light atmospheres and keyboards here and there- but not quite full-on symphonic black metal, or as full-on melodic black metal as Cryptic Wintermoon, but somewhere in between.

The songs on the album are apparently all old or rearranged songs, finally given a ‘professional’ production at Nightside Audio Studio (Eis, Istapp), but they all have excellent riffs that will please fans of the genre.

After a primal, savage start, “Daemmertage” settles into a really nice melodic blast at the 2:45 ish mark, and from there on in, I’m fully into it. Riffs in the likes of galloping “Auf Alten Pfaden”, the crystalline fury of “Die alte Mühl’ im wilden Wald”, all hit that Nordic, frosty, foresty black metal itch.

The middle of the album wanders into a bit of a lull with “Im Nachtenschein” and “Wenn dereinst der Berg rief”, but the closer “Winterland / Alle hernach” is a gloriously majestic, almost Christmas-y, more full-on symphonic black metal track, ending the album on a solid high note

The main man is Ghramm, and according to Metal Archives, he plays “everything”. So there ya go. As far as album lengths go, I reviewed Esoctrilihum, and that album was an hour and a fucking half long. This record is a shorty, running thirty-one and fifty-six minutes without losing any neck-snapping moments.

How is it? Pretty fucking good. It’s not Emissaries. It’s raw and dirty, full of sand and grit; it suffers a bit from the one-man lack of quality control, as most songs stick to the four-minute mark; this is fine for this type of album. Starting with the blistering “La’anat Al-Woujoud (لعنة الوجود)”, the production is wafer-thin, definitely a dude in a basement with a four-track quality. It’s unapologetically raw. It’s almost Graveland-ish on “Wahat Al-Shouroud (واحة الشرود)”, there’s a cool mixer of Sitar (is that a sitar? I think it’s a sitar) and raging drums and guitars.

The mid-paced “Ana’a Al-Majarra (عناء المجرة)” keeps your attention with its killer riff structure and a wild solo. Wailing and Madness doesn’t reinvent the wheel, and the real surprises here are the Middle Eastern instruments, but songs like “Dana’at Al-Amr (دناءة الأمر)” are only elevated by the Middle Eastern melodies that poke through. Otherwise, this is just a good Black Metal album.

“Washma Ramad (وشم رماد)” is a cool Dimmu Borgir throwback track that brings to mind For Al Tid and Stormblast vibes. It’s got a crazy sitar solo against this sort of standard Black Metal track, the vocals are gravel and graveyard dirt, and work really well against the backdrop of blasting and wailing guitar work.

“Alhan Sarmadeyah (ألحان سرمدية)” sees the production drop a bit more. There’s literally no bass on Wailing and Madness, Metallica’s …And Justice for All has more bass presence than this. Which is kind of disappointing because without that low end, everything is sort of abrasive. “Hebr Al-Akwan (حبر الأكون)” has some killer ideas floating around in there. The mid-paced aspect of the track is suitably menacing, creating a new level of gravitas, but after a while it starts grating on the ears.

Final track has some badass acoustic work around the two-minute mark “Shorfat Al-Fana’a (شرفة الفناء)” is one that could’ve been on Deathcrush. Primitive riffing and thunderous drums keep things interesting but the song ultimately ends too quickly without using its full potential.

At the end of the day, I’m left with a good Black Metal album with Middle Eastern melodies. It could be great if there were more bass and a bit more oomph. If you are a fan of Melechesh and Al Nimrood, you’ll probably love this. So go get this if you want.

In truth though, when you get to that level of pepper-induced pain, real flavor kind of takes a back seat. The term “straight gas, no brakes” could appropriately be applied, not only for the all-out dedication to oral punishment, but because one of the few flavor profiles attached to little bastards like these is often “ethanol-like.” So… gas. On the other hand, if you still want the surface-level capsaicin rush, but want more depth of flavor, there’s no shortage of options available. There’s the beautiful, rich earth tones of a poblano or hatch chili, or in the case of the humble (if misunderstood) habanero, a bright, fruity backbone that pairs delightfully with white wine, fruit or white meats, but with plenty of kick to still reach down your pants and give you a little thrill. Consensually.

The point is, whatever flavor profile you’re looking to fit, whatever personal tastes you may have or experience you want to partake in, peppers have no shortage of options available to get you where you wanna go.

Portugal’s Gaerea, for their part, are certainly no stranger to the art of delivering a highly impactful experience. Their emotionally-driven, cathartic blend of extreme music has certainly never lacked in the way of “spice,” but through the course of their career, the band has steadily worked their way down from billion-scoville levels of blistering attack, to more modest, palatable levels of aggression, coming fully to a head in he form of 2024’s Coma, an album that saw the band at their relatively-most-accessible, while still providing no shortage of furious, blast-beaten and blackened fury.

It also marked the first album with founding member and longtime lead guitarist Alpha (Guilherme Henriques) taking over vocal duties from original vocalist, Ruben Freitas. While Freitas’ tortured, impassioned bellows were certainly chills-inducing and every bit fitting of the band’s sound, Alpha proved he not only could match Freitas’ intensity, but also expand the band’s range by incorporating the occasional stretch of clean vocals and whispered accents that only made the band’s penchant for atmosphere all the more potent. The increased emphasis on space and melody only heightened the drama of their work, effectively making the highs and lows of the album all the more devastating in its delivery, and perhaps more importantly, did so in a way that never betrayed what has always made Gaerea such a unique and recognizable entity.

With Loss (the band’s first effort with Century Media), Gaerea continues to push its own boundaries to create a more complex and, at least to these ears, a more impressive product. While never ones to shy away from emotional themes and overtones, tracks like “Submerged,” “Phoenix” and “Cyclone” showcase the band leaning even further into what’s possible with the use of more intricate and sophisticated vocal techniques (including a not unwelcome increase in really pretty and heartfelt cleans, particularly on the excellent “Cyclone”), and the addition of even more varied and interesting musical influences – the snapping break of “Submerged” and lofi intermission “LBRNTH” are equal parts unexpected and exceptionally appropriate, providing the sort of sudden-turn palate cleansers amongst the chaos that both shock the system and lend even further to the overall experience of listening to this album.

And that’s all before we get the album’s breathtaking closer “Stardust,” which takes the album’s overall theme of loss and grieving to its crushing conclusion. Imagine if Lorna Shore decided to re-record their landmark “Pain Remains” trilogy, but with a guest collaboration from Sleep Token both vocally and musically – that should give you at least an idea of the kind of soul, intensity, and devastation poured into this track, making for one of this band’s true crowning achievements in their already impressive career.

Before anyone gets put off by the mention of the (confusingly) divisive Sleep Token, or merely pointing out the uptick in clean vocals on this album, make no mistake that the band is still just as capable of delivering violence at a level many bands can only aspire to. “Hellbound” and “Uncontrolled” each unleash the band’s blasting fury in spades, putting aggression at the forefront while still providing balance with moments of calm and stillness. Hell, it’s not even as if the previously mentioned tracks that do flirt more with the lighter, more experimental side of their sound hardly go without the devastating outbursts that make up such a signature part of the band’s identity; they just have a little more under the hood to offer than previous iterations of the band fully provided. If a song like “Phoenix” can’t get your juices flowing, particularly with its defiant message of self-reliance and perseverance through trial and tribulation, then like… I don’t really know what to tell you, man? Shit makes me want to run through a wall, brick or otherwise.

Loss, at its essence, feels like a band truly letting their guard down and allowing their most authentic form to fully bloom. The pressure to be as visceral, to be as brutal and overwhelming as a Trinidad Scorpion chile, no longer seems to be holding this band hostage. The result is a far more enjoyable and complex flavor profile that you’ll remember for more pleasant reasons than just obliterating your taste buds. There’s a range of emotion and depth of influence on display that encourages you to come back again and again to find new, subtle notes and details. It’s an experience that can still bring you to tears, but also fill you with pure joy and self-assured strength. This is Gaerea, so far anyway, at its most impactful, and I commend the band for bringing all these elements together in such a cohesive, intoxicating blend. Loss is a monumental achievement for this band, one that we should all experience.